Gold, Silver Flat on Week

Gold futures advanced for a third straight session Friday, but their combined gains fell a little shy from bringing the yellow metal into positive territory for the week.

Gold for August delivery on Friday added $7, or 0.6%, to settle at $1,256.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

"Gold is consolidating from the recent drawback, but is still in a correction mode, to be clear," MarketWatch quoted Nico Pantelis, head of research at Secular Investor." We should be nearing the bottom of the current correction in the next week or two, from where a bigger climb should start. We think August could be an ideal month to kick-start this new uptrend in gold, which could last till the end of the fall."

Gold futures shed a dime this week, or 0.01%, after two previous weekly losses of 2.1% and 0.7%. Before then, the precious metal scored four straight weekly wins that added 4.3% to prices. Gold has climbed 9.1% so far this year.

"Seventeen traders and analysts took part in a Kitco News Wall Street survey. Nine voters, or 53%, see gold prices rising by the end of next week. There were four votes each, or 24%, for lower and sideways.

Meanwhile, 1,138 readers submitted votes in an online Main Street poll. A total of 566 voters, or 50%, are bullish. Another 326, or 29%, say that gold will fall, while 246, or 22%, are neutral."

Elsewhere, silver for July delivery tacked on 13.8 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $16.647 an ounce. Silver futures this week slipped less than 0.1% after two previous weekly losses of 3.3% and 1.7%. They jumped 6.9% in the three weeks before the declines started. The three most recent weeks of losses have trimmed silver’s year-to-date gain to 4.1%.

In PGM futures on Friday and for the week:

July platinum rose $3.80, or 0.4%, to $929.40 an ounce, for a 0.3% weekly gain.

Palladium for September delivery dropped $23.85, or 2.7%, to $856.65 an ounce, registering a 1% decline from a week ago.